Windows button

The Windows 3.x- style Windows key in its usual position between Strgand Alt.

The Windows key in the style of Windows XP / Vista / 7 on a laptop keyboard.

The Windows key in the current style since Windows 8.

The Windows key (officially the Windows logo key ) is a key on computer keyboards that was introduced by Microsoft along with the Windows 95 operating system . It owes its name to the Windows logo that is typically on it, which is usually monochrome. The symbol is often executed on a circular, tactile elevation of the key surface. When using the keyboard with Unix-type operating systems (e.g. Linux ), the key is also referred to as a super or meta key.

history

The introduction of Windows 95 was connected with the changeover to the 105- key layout . The keyboard layout has been expanded to include two Windows keys and a menu key . On most keyboards, the Windows keys are at the height of the space bar on both sides between Strgand Alt. In contrast to the full 105-key layout, there is only one Windows key on some notebook keyboards and newer keyboards for Windows Vista , mostly between the left Strgand Altkey.

Since other operating systems such as Linux can also be used on PC-compatible hardware, the Windows key is also available there. In these cases with no reference to Windows, however, the term “super key” is used as an alternative. Originally - many years before the development of the PC and thus the introduction of the actual Windows key - the term “super key” referred to a similar additional key on the keyboards that was developed by Tom Knight at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory .

function

Windows operating system

Under Windows up to Windows 7 and under Windows 10 , a single keystroke opens the start menu , a second keystroke closes this menu and, depending on the system, sets the user's input focus back to the previously active application. In Windows 8 , the start page is opened by simply pressing the button, and pressing it again switches back to the application last used.

Even without this key, its basic function, opening the start menu , can be called up using the key combination Strg + Esc. For Microsoft Windows RT or Windows 10 S , in contrast to all other Windows NT versions, at least one Windows key must be available.

Key combinations cause different user interface actions:

+ Bsets the focus on the first element in the systray .
+ Dminimizes the entire window landscape to the desktop and back.
+ Eopens a Windows Explorer window .
+ Fopens the search function .
+ Llocks the computer (applications continue to run, the password has to be entered for renewed access).
+ Mminimizes all windows that have a button in the taskbar and shows the desktop ; Windows without a taskbar button are thus accessible.
+ Shift ⇧+ Mrestores all previously minimized windows.
+ Ropens the Run window .
+ Shift ⇧+ Scopies the mouse-marked part of the screen as a graphic to the clipboard.
+ Untbropens the "System Properties" window.
+ UAccess to the input help.
+ Tab ↹lets the focus move through the taskbar buttons, regardless of the order of the last calls.

Additional combinations if Microsoft OneNote is installed:

+ Nopens a new MS OneNote side note.
+ Shift ⇧+ Nopens MS OneNote.
+ Senables the creation of a screen section (analogous to the Windows Snipping Tool) that is transferred to MS OneNote.

Since Windows Vista the following key combinations are also possible or changed:

+ 0-9The program at the point in the quick start bar that corresponds to the number is executed. In Windows 7 , this feature applies to the programs pinned to the taskbar. The number zero calls up the tenth program, according to its position on the keyboard.
+ BActivates the "Show hidden symbols" button in the system tray
+ TThe first entry in the system tray is focused. Repeated pressing changes the application.
+ XButton to open the Windows Mobility Center, where - depending on the computer's equipment - you can switch to an external monitor, see the battery status, adjust brightness and volume, etc.
+ Tab ↹under Windows Vista and 7 opens a 3D representation of all open applications that can be scrolled through. This function is also known as "Flip 3D" and is only supported with activated aero surface. In Windows 8, this key combination switches between Windows apps .

Additional new keyboard shortcuts have been introduced for Windows 7 :

+ ↑The active window is maximized.
+ ↓The active window is minimized or restored.
+ ←The active window is placed on the left edge of the screen.
+ →The active window is placed on the right edge of the screen.
+ Shift ⇧+ ↑The active window is enlarged to the complete screen height (width and position remain untouched).
+ Shift ⇧+ ←The active window is moved to the left monitor.
+ Shift ⇧+ →The active window is moved to the right monitor.
+ LeertasteThe content of the desktop is shown, as long as you hold down, Leertasteyou can let go.
+ GThe gadgets on the desktop are brought to the fore.
+ PSwitching between screen, external monitors or projectors as well as combinations between them.
+ +activates the magnifier and zooms in.
+ -(with activated magnifier) zoom out.
+ Esc(when the magnifier is activated) deactivates the magnifier.

The following key combinations have been introduced or changed in Windows 8 :

toggles between the start menu and the last used app .
+ Copens the "Charms menu" (which offers settings for the current app, for example).
+ Xopens a kind of substitute start menu that provides access to system functions.
+ LeertasteChange the keyboard layout

The following combinations have been introduced or changed under Windows 10 :

+ Copens the Cortana voice assistant
+ Aopens the info center
+ Iopens the settings
+ Fopens the feedback hub
+ KOpens the Info Center to connect wireless audio or display devices (if supported by the PC)
+ .Opens the emoji window

Other operating systems

In other operating systems, the Windows key works, for example, as a command key ( Apple Macintosh , for key combinations ) and as a compose key (a dead key ).

macOS

Another form of the "operating system key " is, for example, the Command or Command key ( ⌘or cmd) under macOS from Apple : it is used like the Ctrl and Alt key under Windows and is used to control the computer by calling up commands, whereby the Alt key is free to switch to a third and, together with the Shift key, to a fourth assignment of all keyboard keys, with which additional (special) characters can be entered, and the Ctrl key is free for z. B. own, self-definable system-wide keyboard shortcuts. Any “Windows keyboard” can be used under Mac OS X; u. a. Since the Alt and Command keys are reversed on keyboards sold for Mac OS X, the system settings for each keyboard can be used to specify which function each press of the Caps Lock, Shift, Ctrl, Alt and "Windows" keys triggers ; for example, the key labeled "Alt" and sending the corresponding scan code can be used as a command key and the "Windows key" as an Alt key and you have a "Mac keyboard".

Linux

To operate the Openbox window manager for Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, key combinations are defined in an XML file (which can be adapted in a text editor ) with a name ending in. H. Certain "actions" are assigned to a key combination. As of Linux Ubuntu 12.04, the Windows key is also used as a window manager. When pressed, an overview with all installed programs opens.rc.xml

Linuxmint

The default setting for Linuxmint is to call up the start menu of the distribution. The respective setting can be viewed with the access: Settings → Keyboard → Assignments → Options → Behavior of the Alt / Windows keys

Lubuntu

The default is the Linux distribution Lubuntu (which uses Openbox) combinations with the Windows key to switch between screen-filling " working surfaces " of a virtual desktop .

The lines

<keybind key="W-F4">
  <action name="GoToDesktop">
    <to>4</to>
  </action>
</keybind>

of the file lubuntu-rc.xmlsupplied with Lubuntu, for example, cause the combination + F4- encoded by " W-F4" - <to>4</to>to appear on the screen with workspace 4 ( ).

In the (English) documentation, the Windows key (coded as W) is also referred to as the Super Key . More precisely, it says there that the super key “is usually represented by the Windows key, if one is available”.

Unix

The behavior of the keyboard of a SPARCstation , which was intended for operation with a Unix variant from SUN Microsystems , could be different from Linux . Despite the lack of a Windows key, such a hardware configuration should also be operable with Linux, so that the super key would have to be implemented using a key other than the Windows key.

Key labeling

→ →

Standard conformity

The international series of standards ISO / IEC 9995 Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems allows (but does not require) one or two operating system keys at specific positions , the function of which is expressly free for the operating system used . These can be labeled with the loop square (⌘) that has been provided in the standard since 2012 or expressly with an operating system logo . In this context, the German keyboard standard DIN 2137 refers to ISO / IEC 9995. In this respect, the Windows key, as a manufacturer-specific expression of the "operating system key", conforms to the standard in its usual arrangement and design.

Windows operating system

The Windows key is with the release of Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 established and was originally with the Windows-3 labeled logo: .

With the appearance of Windows XP , a new Windows logo was introduced, which was soon found on the new keyboards.

On devices with pre-installed Windows 8 and specifically for such devices keyboards offered is to find a re-modified logo: . .

Other operating systems


Apple command key		"Supertaste" with Tux

For devices with macOS, the command key with different layouts from the manufacturer Apple is known. This becomes the Windows key if a Windows installation is used on the device.

For Linux users there are also keyboards with the “Windows key” (called the “super key”) showing the Linux mascot Tux instead of the Windows logo . However, this represents a purely visual difference. The scan code and thus the function of the key in the operating system actually used remain the same. If a Mac keyboard layout is used under Linux, the “super key” can also be used as a command key and the third and fourth assignment - but less consistently than under macOS.

Remarks

↑ It will be restored when it is on the right edge of the screen. If it is on the left edge of the screen, it will be moved to the right.
↑ It will be restored if it is on the left edge of the screen. If it is on the right edge of the screen, it will be moved to the left.
↑ The information relates to 2012: Dave Kennedys Blog and Lubuntu 12.10 .

Individual evidence

↑ tecchannel.de
↑ Microsoft Help for Wireless Projection
↑ Help: Bindings. openbox.org, May 26, 2010, accessed May 24, 2013 .
↑ Dave Kennedy: LXDE / Openbox keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet. September 21, 2012, accessed May 24, 2013 .
↑ ^a ^b Help: Bindings. Modifiers. openbox.org, May 26, 2010, accessed on May 24, 2013 (English): "Super key (Usually bound to the Windows key on keyboards which have one)"
↑ bind in the English-language Wiktionary : "computing"
^ John JG Savard: Today's Keyboards. 2009, accessed on May 24, 2013 .
↑ SPARCstation keyboard. Computer History Museum, 2013, accessed May 24, 2013 .
↑ ISO / IEC 9995-2: 2009 - Alphanumeric section . In: ISO / IEC (Ed.): ISO / IEC 9995: Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems . 2009, Clause 8: Functions of the alphanumeric zone of the alphanumeric section (English, Note: The placement options for function keys not expressly named there result from the general placement requirements for function keys and the required placement for named function keys.).
↑ ^a ^b ISO / IEC 9995-7: 2009 Symbols used to represent functions - Amendment 1 (2012) . In: ISO / IEC (Ed.): ISO / IEC 9995: Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems . 2012 (English, the symbol specification is: Symbol 99 (IEC 60417-6090) “Operating System key”: “To invoke a function defined by the currently active operating system - NOTE: This symbol may be replaced by a logo related to a specific operating system ” ).

Buttons on a IBM / Windows - Keyboard ( German / Austrian occupation "T1")
Esc	F1	F2	F3	F4	F5	F6	F7	F8	F9	F10	F11	F12	Print S-Dep	roll	pause break	Numeric keypad :

													Insert	Pos1	Image ↑	Num	/	*	-
													Dist	The End	Image ↓	7th	8th	9	+
																4th	5	6th	+
														↑		1	2	3	Enter
													←	↓	→	0		,	Enter

[1] It will be restored when it is on the right edge of the screen. If it is on the left edge of the screen, it will be moved to the right.

[2] It will be restored if it is on the left edge of the screen. If it is on the right edge of the screen, it will be moved to the left.

[8] The information relates to 2012: Dave Kennedys Blog and Lubuntu 12.10 .

[3] tecchannel.de

[4] Microsoft Help for Wireless Projection

[5] Help: Bindings. openbox.org, May 26, 2010, accessed May 24, 2013 .

[6] Dave Kennedy: LXDE / Openbox keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet. September 21, 2012, accessed May 24, 2013 .

[openbox-7] Help: Bindings. Modifiers. openbox.org, May 26, 2010, accessed on May 24, 2013 (English): "Super key (Usually bound to the Windows key on keyboards which have one)"

[9] bind in the English-language Wiktionary : "computing"

[10] John JG Savard: Today's Keyboards. 2009, accessed on May 24, 2013 .

[11] SPARCstation keyboard. Computer History Museum, 2013, accessed May 24, 2013 .

[12] ISO / IEC 9995-2: 2009 - Alphanumeric section . In: ISO / IEC (Ed.): ISO / IEC 9995: Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems . 2009, Clause 8: Functions of the alphanumeric zone of the alphanumeric section (English, Note: The placement options for function keys not expressly named there result from the general placement requirements for function keys and the required placement for named function keys.).

[ISO99957A1-13] ISO / IEC 9995-7: 2009 Symbols used to represent functions - Amendment 1 (2012) . In: ISO / IEC (Ed.): ISO / IEC 9995: Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems . 2012 (English, the symbol specification is: Symbol 99 (IEC 60417-6090) “Operating System key”: “To invoke a function defined by the currently active operating system - NOTE: This symbol may be replaced by a logo related to a specific operating system ” ).